It all started with one of those women who won’t give out her recipes. You know the sort. I suppose if I were a tougher lady, more Joan Collins-esque, I would have told her to stop being a ridiculous Greedy Gerty over her stupid brownie recipe and then thrown my drink in her face for good measure but the reality is that I’m the type of sucker who says, and really means, things like “I totally get it, no no, I completely understand—don’t give it another thought, you’re so sweet to even apologize.”

However.

While I may be a simpering twit, I’m also a touch competitive. So as [...]

“At the moment, this study might need to be taken with a grain of salt.” —Dr. Peter Briss of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criticizes a new study which claims that "low-salt diets increase the risk of death from heart attacks and strokes and do not prevent high blood pressure." As an avowed sodium fan, I am going to ignore Dr. Briss' cavil and keep pouring it on, because now I know it's healthy! Also, who is writing the CDC's material, Bruce Vilanch?

Science has finally explained why we like salt so much: It's as fun for our brains as cocaine and cigarettes. Works for me!

The FDA, following in Mike Bloomberg's footsteps, is making plans to force food manufacturers to gradually reduce the amount of salt in their offerings. Salt content went unnoticed until now because it was "generally recognized as safe," but that was back before the average American was eating 3,500 milligrams of it a day. (That's the equivalent of 1.25 Triple Baconators. Which seems a little low!)

"Eating less salt will not prevent heart attacks, strokes or early death," says a study that is almost certainly flawed but that I am not going to read anymore about because it tells me what I want to hear. Have the salt! I mean, you're gonna die eventually anyway.

And now the brilliant New York State Assembly has a bill that would apparently, really, ban all salt usage in restaurants. No seriously, this is the description in full: "Prohibits the use of salt by restaurants in the preparation of food by restaurants." It is off to the Committee on Health, where they are going to laugh and laugh and roll around on the floor and laugh some more before deep-sixing it in some filing cabinet somewhere. WON'T SOMEONE LOBBY FOR THE SALT INDUSTRY? (via)